Shawl? is it worth it?

[Bregalad]

I say if you are a buffing class, it's pretty hard to beat the shawl. If I were a wis caster(especially shaman) I'd take 8th shawl over Cog Encrusted any time.

Being an Enchanter, items I would consider a worthy replacement (Time loot aside) are: Hooded Sanguine Mantle off Arlyxir in ToSR, and Kelp-lined Mantle off Coirnav. And it's gonna be a looooong time before I am able to even set foot in those zones.

[Ethelwind]

The Shawl is in the meantime just something I'm very proud of accomplishing and ranks just behind my Mage epic.

I dont use the epic much anymore, but still have the shawl even though there are better items in terms of hps/mana/effects for me as a mage from VT, PoP Tiers 1-3, and soon tier 4.

But it definately is useful just when i'm ds-ing or the like and even when i get something better stat-wise itll still be in the bag a long long time.

So i would say:

a) If you hate tradeskills, don't have any buffs for others, have access to PoP Bossmob or VT Bossmob loot, then its not worth it.

b) If none of the reasons in a) applies then do it Its still one of the achievements one can be terribly proud of

Greetings,
Ethelwind

[thRover]

I can't imagine doing all that tradeskill work just to do the shawl quests. If that is the case then I'd say its definately not worth it. If you are doing tradeskills like I did, with an alt made just for that purpose, by the time you are ready to start the quest you have the tradeskills already in place. Tradeskills are usefull for so much more, that it is a good idea to have at least one character capable of doing all those combines anyway. I play on FV where most stuff is dropable and I've not done a single bit of farming, I just buy the stuff in the bazaar. I don't know how much of that stuff is no-drop on the blue servers, but that could certainly change the whole situation.

[Veril]

FT3 and 20% Extension on an item with good stats and resists.

unless you are capping those things then it is worth it.

[laloin]

as everyone has said, if you enjoy tradeskills then by all means do the shawl quest
if you don't enjoy tradeskills and have access to elementals VT eta then your probley gonna found something better
me I've been working on this shawl quest off and on for over a year and have and I don't plan on stopping till I have 8th shawl
best laloin

[Littlun]

Oh, yeah!

The shawl quests are, IMHO, the best in EQ. Period. The ring quests are good, as are a lot of the epics, and everything else pales in comparison. The fact that you get an insanely nice item at the end of it, without having to be a member of some ubah guild that raids Time while watching Leno is definitely part of the attraction.

There may be single items (though very few) that, stat for stat, are better than the 8th shawl, but none will provide the same satisfaction.

Thanx,

Littlun.

[Ndaara]

If you have to ask if it's worth it... it isn't.

[Lilosh]

Well, I love tradeskills. Love love love.

I have shawl four, and I have been to GD for HOURS at a time, 6 different times.

And I have TWO biles!??!

It's not the tradeskills I hate, it's the stupid droprate on some of this stuff. Some people get their biles in 5 minutes, some take MONTHS.

I got the Cog Encrusted Epaults last night, And now It will be challanging to find the motivation to keep going back to GD for little reward. But the eighth shawl is better.


-Lilosh

[Sylphan]

For some people it's worth it.

There is no item in the game that extends buffs more than the 8th shawl. Not even from plane of time. The 8th shawl is IT.

Many people have much higher priorities than making buffs last longer, so it's not essential. But if you ever get to the point where you have almost everything you could ever want, you'll start thinking of going back to the 8th shawl and using rings, helms, robes, or whatever to replace the stats or focus effects on whatever other shoulder piece you had. PoP has definitely not made the 8th shawl obsolete.

[liinedud]

Depends on the situation

Honestly I can't say whether or not it is worth it for you. Alot is determined by the rest of your gear, your play style, your guild's targets, and your amount of time-sink time.


Reasons why:

I notice that you are a cleric. In the instances of clerics , mana regen and preservation is vital. The longer a cleric can hold a rotation the better chance a guild has for success.

As for the extended buffs, its really never going to matter unless you are in an XP group. I'm a raid leader so I'm very well aware of what peridots and emeralds can cost. Having the buffs last just that much longer might save you some extra cash.

Stats and saves are all great on this item. You could change the name and make it a wrist slot and I would swear it came out of Vex Thal. 8 to stats / saves and two different focus effects, one of which is FT3. 50 hps/ mana on a non-major slot. Another huge upgrade for most casters. Yes I know the AC is pretty weak but thats about the only drawback to it stat-wise.

Questing is fun no matter how you look at it. Just take epics for example. There are better, buyable items in the bazaar and yet for some reason slime-blood of cazic thule still goes for 40k. This is an awesome quest with a neat story line and you really get to learn what tradeskilling is all about. I also learned the layout of dozens of cities that I'd never been to, learned Velious like the back of my hand and really grew to like the story that Velious brought to the game.


Why not to:

Depending on who you know and your success rates with some combines this quest can turn really expensive really quick. I personally did my shawl for under 12k. This wasn't nearly the expense that it could have been because I received some of the more expensive materials from guild members. If you don't have assistance in gathering materials, you could end up shelling out alot of plat to finish this quest.

Time is a big thing for most raid-style guilds. My guild isn't currently like that but some more aggressive guilds require things like this to be done on your own time. I could probably spend just as much time tradeskilling every day as I do raiding and XPing. This leaves you with like 4 hours in the day to actually have a life.


You could look at Most mid to high-end guilds just use MGB to buff with and whenever it wears off they just MGB again with a different caster. Rebuffs are going to happen, don't stress finding an item that will extend something that 90% of the raid is still going to have running. Dispells and deaths are going to be a thorn in your side from here to Time, don't stress whether MA's virtue wore off 2 minutes before you were ready to engage. If the shawl saves you that much time you're cutting it too close.

Either way you look at it, no one can make the decision to do this quest but you.

Liin Edud
65 Barbarian Prophet
Officer of Inevitable Storm
Lanys T'vl

[Raiyaeq]

My main is a druid. Time flagged. Whenever I buff, I still put on my 8th shawl. I did it way back when 8th shawl was first introduced. I am pretty sure that I was one of the top 5 completed it on Vaz. Anyways, it is well worth it imo. I am doing it for my mage twink now. FT3 on the shoulder just makes it nice for a twink. I also have a cleric twink who can use it, but at this moment, I don't know if I'll have the mood to do it.

[Cigarskunk]

If you aren't elemental/PoT flagged, then hands down this is a premo item.

Even if you aren't into tradeskills, getting your skills to the point that you'll need to do this quest still isn't *THAT* bad anymore thanks to new bridging recipes.

Cost really isn't too bad if you can farm some of the worst ingredients during guild raids - it cost my Troll SK around 7-8k to do all 8 shawls total - that's including skilling up tradeskills to the needed points.

The cost and effort to reward is really quite astounding too - if you're into tradeskills and were going to pretend to try for the 1750 club anyway, then the 8th shawl is an easy bonus.

The other bonus is that the 8th shawl still isn't all that common an item and can still reasonably be considered the epic for tradeskillers.

If you had neither love nor need for tradeskills, the 8th shawl is still ultimately easier than doing an epic and you can't get anything comperable for the cost/work involved anyway - what are those FT3 boots going for from CT right now - still around 50-80k plat?

Finally, if you need any other proof of the value of the 8th shawl, like I said above, my troll SK has his - he's only 54th, he's my main and I'm not a member of some uber guild or have any uber buddies to help me along. I love tradeskills and did it as much for the pride of having done it as I did it for the perceived value to me of actually having it.

[Taylith]

I went from max KOS coldain faction, and 0 in all tradeskills, to 7 shawls complete and the full suit of armor for the 8th shawl in 3 weeks.
Cost me roughly 8k.
I'd say it's easily worth it.

However, I'm level 65, a druid (I can port myself around and track the mobs I need), and had some help from my level 65 ranger friend who got her shawl before me (though it took her many months).

[llaffer]

When I started my shawl, I was just barely over 30, taking down giants in guild groups with other 30s -- and being a non-twink 30ish ENC, I had no money to go out and go nuts on all the tradeskills.

I had started jewleling when I could zap silver at L8, so that was up and coming, and I dabbled with the other tradeskills a little, so it wasn't like I was 0 in everything to start with.

When I learned more about what was needed, I'd work a little here and there at skilling up between item collecting and leveling.

It took me about 18 months from the start of the quests to the end of it. I'm L61 now, love the focus effect on it (can't complain to have 3 hours KEI instead of 2.5 ) and has had shawl 8 for about 3 months now.

Well worth the time and money put into it.

[Acacious]

I value it as much as my epic